Acronis 11 (Now Acronis 2009) Provides a Quick
Way to Recover From a Master-Drive FailureOr Retrieve files from any Backup Date, while Running
Win-XP or Vista7 Aug. 2008 text by jack
yeazel

BACKGROUND:Consider that you have installed two drives in your computer (Master
C: and Slave D:) or an external drive and wish to be able to recover from
an HD failure "instantly". For several years I searched the Internet
for a solution, but there wasn't any -that could be afforded or understood!
Then Kim Komando suggested Acronis and Ghost. I tried cloning with
Ghost 9, but couldn't get XP Pro SP-2 to bootup. (Some people claim
success.) However, there were many favorable comments on the Internet
about Acronis True Image 8.

In order to back up your computer in case of a Master drive failure
with Windows 98, one could simply copy the C: drive to the D: drive, and
the D: drive could bootup the computer in case of a C: drive failure.
But not so with Windows XP, XP Pro, and Vista. These operating systems
seem to record WHICH drive they are installed on, and refuse to bootup
when copied to a different drive.

WHY ACRONIS?:Acronis overcame this problem with v. 8 in that any drive we cloned
with Acronis could replace the normal (failed) boot drive C: and always
bootup the computer. However, v.8 required the cloned drive size
to be the same or larger than the source drive, and the Incremental Image
feature didn't work.

We have been using Acronis 8 for several years to recover from catastrophic
HD failures as reported (HERE).
As a practical matter with v. 8, we cloned our laptop's 20GB drive to a
40GB and then later to an 80GB, never having any problem with the installed
Windows XP Pro.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 8 AND 11:Acronis 11 overcomes several limitations of 8, in that the newer
version does Incremental Image backups correctly, and can clone a larger
drive to a smaller drive (provided there is enough room for the larger
drive's files.) Download Acronis 11 (HERE)
for $50.

CREATE A RECOVERY CD:One of the first things you will want to do is create a bootable
CD that can launch Acronis, if your computer won't boot from the HD.
This will allow you to access Image files to restore your computer.
If your HD is completely shot, just install a new one and then restore.

CLONING:

Cloning is different from copying, because it is a sector copier and
has no knowledge of files or operating systems. (But generally speaking,
cloned drives can't be transferred from one computer to another, because
each computer has a unique set of drivers.) The time it takes to
clone a drive is directly related to the total size of the drive and the
speed of the computer -so it can take several hours in some cases.
But this is the "ultimate" backup. One only has to swap out the failed
drive with the backup (provided they fit), and you are back in business.
Below are the steps for cloning.

CLONING PROCEDURE:This program is simple beyond belief (considering
the complexity of 'normal' programs). There is no floppy required,
like with Ghost. Just run the program, select the source and target
drives, and the program takes over -including rebooting into DOS for the
action to take place, and then it reboots your computer back into XP or
Vista.

If necessary, the program will change the target's
NTFS to FAT-32 -or vice versa. I suspect that cloning on a
desktop with two drives, you could have a complete master drive failure
and not even know it, unless you looked at the name of the booted drive.

In some computers, the BIOS can be set to boot
off the slave drive (drive boot sequence 1,0,2,3 instead of 0,1,2,3).
This is a very handy feature of ONE of my computers, and it allows me to
test the cloning without having to change any cables inside the computer.
(Always ask for this feature in the BIOS when purchasing a new computer).

CLICK ON THESE
THUMBNAILS FOR LARGER VIEWS......First pages of Acronis 11

Pick a Category. For cloning select Disk Utilities

Under Hard Disk Utilities, select Clone Disk

Select Automatic for cloning.

......The colored bars represent
the type of partitions on the drives, their size, and use (gray)

Select the drive to be cloned.

Select the target drive.

Select: Delete partitions on the destination hard drive.

.....

Note that after cloning, both drives will have the same name as the
source. We suggest you rename the drive to its original name to better
keep track.

The next frame gives a preview of the upcoming operations (for one last
check!). Pressing 'Next' will lock all partitions and reboot the
computer.

After finishing, the program will require a key press to reboot, -and
may want to do a drive check.

PUZZLEMENT:There is one peculiarity. When booting
off the slave (cloned) drive, the computer doesn't recognize the master
(source) drive. However, if TWO cloned drives are put in the computer,
either drive will boot up as the System drive (C:), and the other is visible
as the Active drive (D:). However there isn't anything wrong with
the source drive, and the target (backup) slave drive can be cloned as
may times as you like to keep it up to date.

There is a 'cryptic' instruction from the program
that the source drive should be removed. This may in some way be
related to why the source drive isn't visible when booting off the cloned
slave.

SUGGESTION:NOTE: If you use the Cable Select jumper setting
on your drives (with the proper drive cable), you never have to change
any jumpers no matter where you put the drives.

IMAGES:

Using Images is the most practical backup procedure for the newer 'mega'
GB drives in that subsequent (incremental) backups only take a few minutes.
The initial Image will take some time (but less than a clone), because
only the EXISTING files on the drive are imaged. Each time an Incremental
Backup is performed, a different file is created on the backup drive that
can access ALL the files on the computer as of the backup date. Thus
if one has 'lost' some file that existed at any of the backup dates, that
file can easily be retrieved. Image files can be created whil Windows
is running.

Some people create Image files on DVDs, but I use an external HD
that can hold eight clones -or an original Image and any number of Image
increments. This saves 'DVD clutter'. Acronis can be setup
to do incremental images automatically on a periodic basis.

......

Pick a Category. For Images, select Backup and Restore.

Select Backup.

Select My Computer.

......

Select Disks and Partitions.

Check the drive that is to be imaged. (All HDs are shown).

Select any files or classes of files to be excluded (we did not select
any).

This screen will show all the image (.tib) files on the target drive.
In this case, the initial image file was "T-4600-" and the first incremental
"T-4600-2".The next image created will increment to a "-3" file, etc.
Other image files are also shown (from a different computer.)

......

Select: Create an incremental backup. (Initially one would select:
Create a new full backup archive).

Add any comments as to just what is the nature of this particular backup.
(These comments can be viewed when running the Acronis Restore feature.)

This final screen shows the operations which will take place with
Proceed. The Image will be appended to the previous Image "T-4600-2"
on drive E:\

AFTER IMAGING:

Here one can click on ANY of the .tib image files and produce "computer
folders" that contain the file structure in the imaged computeras of the date of imaging (by expanding C:).

RECOVERY:Boot off the Recovery CD. The Acronis program gives you the
option of turning off the computer, booting into Windows, or booting into
Acronis. An 'Explorer' tree (like the above) will appear showing
all drives on the computer. Select the backup date you desire, and
Acronis restores the source HD. In some cases a new HD may have to
be formatted.

After the process is done, shut the computer down. When you
reboot, you’ll see Windows as it existed when Acronis created the image
files.

Now with that kind of backup, you'll have no
excuse for loosing a file, folder, -or the whole computer! Happy
(and SAFE) computing,